Feeling good

Let’s review.  The New Jersey Governor’s face–D.  The Virginia Governor’s race–D.  The New York Mayor’s race–D.  The PA Supreme Court retention race–Yes.  

A.O.C. gave a great speech at the Mamdani victory party.  She said it wasn’t about Progressive or Liberal, it was about working together to oppose the threat to democracy.  I think that is the important thing to remember.  The Democratic Party doesn’t have to move to the left or to the right.  It has to move together in a unified front and represent the people of America.

We need a Front Populaire.  We need to join together.  This is no time to worry about petty differences.  If we stick together, we can turn this around.  You know the drill.  Big tent.  Solidarity.  Unity.  Brother and Sisterhood.  Remember the first cartoon by Ben Franklin?  The snake all cut up?  Remember the caption?  “Join or die.”

But tonight, let’s just celebrate.

Signs at polling places

Tonight Linda and I went around to 18 polling places to put up “Vote Yes on Judicial Retention” signs.  We covered the Palmerton and Lehighton areas.  Tomorrow night I will drive around and pick them up.  

Does this do any good?  The old cliche in campaign lore is: “1/2 of the money in any campaign is wasted.  The problem is–you don’t know which half.”  I think most people who come to the polling places to cast their votes already know how they plan to vote and ignore the signs.  On the other hand, this is a low information election.  Suppose you influence one out of a hundred voters.  In a close election, one percent can be the difference between victory and defeat.  So we put the signs up.

Terrorist plot in Michigan?

Yesterday FBI director Kash Patel announced that a terrorist plot had been thwarted in Michigan.  Five people were arrested.

The problem with having an idiot in charge of the FBI is that one questions everything he says.  A terrorist plot?  Really?  The attorney for one of the people arrested said there was no plot, no terrorism.  

If it is a choice of believing some attorney or Kash Patel, I’m going with the attorney.   

"Ridiculousness" cancelled

As readers know, I cultivate an aura of wisdom and probity, and I am now going to blow all that by admitting that I watch “Ridiculousness” on MTV.  The show has been cancelled, although it will be in reruns for some time.  For those of you who have never seen the show, the host, Ron Dyrdek, introduces videos of people doing really stupid and often painful stunts.  

Dyrdek usually had two sidekicks, Steelo Brim and Chanel West Coast, who make comments and laugh at the people in the videos.  Chanel West Coast is known for her laugh, and she is cute as she can be.  It is really a low class show for low class people in a low class era. 

On a completely different subject, today is Dia de los Muertos.  Do not mention it if ICE is in your neighborhood.  If they hear you speaking Spanish, these idiots will deport your ass.

Fair Federation for American Immigration Reform

How the heck did I get on these right-wing crank group mailing lists?  I do subscribe to a newsletter from Hillsdale College, an extremely right-wing college that puts out a monthly newsletter full of misleading articles by various “conservatives.”  Maybe the college sells its subscription list.

So today I get a “poll” asking me questions about immigration.  The letter states:  Our nation is at a breaking point.  The brave men and women of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)–sworn to enforce our laws and protect our communities–are being vilified, harassed, and even violently assaulted.  

Not only by radical mobs.  Not only by dangerous illegal alien criminals.  

But also by radical anti-border politicians and activists who are fanning the flames with hateful rhetoric.  (their emphasis)

They then ask me to send in a contribution.  I wrote across it:  “I wouldn’t have supported the Gestapo in Germany in the Thirties, and I certainly won’t contribute to ICE.”  

Yes, it cost me a stamp, but the satisfaction was worth it.  I always include my address so they can find me.  If I go missing, you know what happened.

Scary story in time for Halloween

If you want to read a really scary story, check out “Information Overload’ by Stephen Witt in the Nov. 3 issue of The New Yorker.  Witt details the exponential growth of data centers, the amount of electricity used to power just one, the fact that the power is generated mostly by fossil fuels, how the effect on global warming is handled (deny there is a problem), the way AI is plagiarizing all kinds of writing, and the future redundancy of human labor after robots take over jobs.

I am not sure what jobs will be available 20 years from now.  I have a feeling that it won’t be pretty.  All of those dystopian science fiction novels and movies are about to become real.

Grokipedia

Elon Musk is truly amazing.  How is one man able to screw up so many things?  Now he is going after Wikipedia.  I really like Wikipedia and use it often.  I send small donations in at least twice a year.  I like the way it gives the reader the sources of the information in the entries.  I like its thoroughness, its neutrality, its comprehensiveness.

Not Musk.  He thinks he will “purge out the propaganda” which he says floods Wikipedia.  He is starting a rival program called “Grokipedia.”  Evidently conservatives think Wikipedia is too “woke.”  In other words, it is a reliable source of actual information rather than the crap that will soon be available on Musk’s invention.  By the way, the entries in Grokipedia will be edited by xAI, Musk’s artificial intelligence company.

If you haven’t given a contribution to Wikipedia, please consider it.  From what I’ve read, less than 2% of Wikipedia users contribute.

Some of the info for this post is from Kate Conger, “Musk’s Rival to Wikipedia Aims to Correct the Record," New York Times, (Oct. 29, 2025), p. B-5.

So dumb it makes my head hurt

Today I read about a veterinarian in Brighton, Colorado, who in the last four years treated a dog whose kidneys shut down after it contracted leptospirosis.  Other dogs she saw died of parvovirus.  She was forced to euthanize a 20-week-old puppy with seizures because rabies couldn’t be ruled out.

None of these deaths were necessary if the dogs had received their normal regimen of shots.  Unfortunately the owners were anti-vaxxers whose ignorance spilled over into killing their dogs.  

George Washington inoculated his troops against small pox at Valley Forge.  That was over 200 years ago.  And people are still unsure about the efficacy of vaccinations.  

Unfortunately, there is no vaccine for stupidity.  Even if one was invented, Americans wouldn’t get the shot.

Some of the information is from Emily Anthes and Teddy Rosenbluth, “Owners Skipping Pets’ Shots, New York Times, (Oct. 28, 2025), pp. D-1, D-5.

Should Democratic candidates move to the center?

The Editorial Board of the New York Times ran an opinion piece entitled “Moving to the Center is the Way to Win.”  It analyzed a number of races in which Democrats won in 2024 in districts that Trump also carried.  The conclusion was that the more “progressive” Democrats did not win those seats.  The candidates who won were not like A.O.C. and Bernie Sanders but rather fell into the middle of the ideological spectrum.

The article noted that even Trump had moved toward the center on some issues, for example opposing abortion but also noting that he would veto a national abortion ban.  

I do get a little tired of this “move to the center” advice, however.  Here’s what the Editorial Board should have advised.  Know your constituents and act accordingly.  After all, A.O.C. did win in her district.  Bernie Sanders wins in Vermont.  Mamdani will probably win in New York

Some Democratic silliness, of course, has done all kinds of damage.  Watching thousands of people come across the border in a few days and pretending this is not a big deal was just stupid.  The “defund the police” chant was never a serious Democratic position, but it was out there and used by the Republicans as a club.  

If you say you favor race-based affirmative action, that is going to lose you an election.  On the other hand, if you say you favor helping qualified low income students, no matter what their race or gender, you will gain votes.  If you say that “trans” people should not be fired if they are doing their jobs, most voters will agree.  If you say that trans boys should play in girls’ sports, most voters, including me, will disagree.

Know your voters.  Discuss issues that matter to them.  Controlling data centers.  Lowering health care costs.  Vocational training.  Inexpensive housing.  Moving the homeless out of downtown parks and into programs.  Arresting shoplifters.  Saving endangered species.  Following the Constitution.

You can make up your own list.  It isn’t that you move to the center.  It is that you reflect the interests and concerns of your voters.  That does not mean you need to appeal to their prejudices.  It means you need to appeal to their core concerns.

"Let's Roll"

Remember those heroes in Fight 93 who yelled “Let’s Roll” and attacked the terrorists who had seized the plane.  The plane crashed in a field near Shanksville in Somerset County in Western Pennsylvania, sacrificing everyone on board

Remember the target of those terrorists in that plane?

It was the White House.

[Thank you, Bill, for reminding me of that.]

Letter to Turning Point USA

Turning Point USA

P.O. Box 52139

Phoenix, AZ 85072-9801

Dear Staff:

I recently received a fundraising letter signed by Erika Kirk, the CEO and Chair of your organization.

When I heard that Charlie Kirk was murdered, I had no idea who he was.  The initial reports about him made him sound like a follower of Christ who was calling for a return to morality.  I did some research and learned the horrible things he said about black women.  He seemed to delight in the death of George Floyd.  Worst of all, he supported a President who is a pedophile responsible for separating children from their parents, killing unarmed civilians on the high seas, pardoning terrible criminals, and using the government to enrich himself and his family.

I could never support an organization that is dedicated to spreading that kind of ideology and hatred.  

Sincerely, 

Roy Christman

No Israeli annexation of the West Bank

Evidently Trump warned Israel that if it attempts to annex the West Bank, “Israel would lose all of its support from the United States if that happened.”  This came after the Knesset passed two bills in favor of annexation.

Of course, our Ambassador to Israel, former Baptist preacher and governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee, referred to the West Bank as Samaria and Judea, using the Biblical names favored by the right-wing settlers.

While I applaud his statement on annexation, I also find it disheartening that Trump did not criticize the murders, forced displacement, and continuous harassment of West Bank Palestinians by the Israeli settlers.

Needy people

When I go to St. Lukes for an appointment, I invariably get a message asking me about how I was treated.  My gym periodically sends me questionnaires asking me what I thought of the experience.  The Post Office has a device on the counter asking me to press a buttons about the service.  Various phone interactions often include a message asking me to stay on the line to answer questions about my interactions.  

How did we do?  Were you satisfied?  Rank this or that from one to ten, with ten comparable to an orgasm and one approximating being burned at the stake.

Don’t worry.  I am not about to ask you to rank my posts.  Mostly because I don’t want to irritate my readers, but also because I fear the stake-burning comparisons.

Vegetable garden on the White House lawn!

It was not that long ago that conservatives had a hissy fit about First Lady Obama putting a vegetable garden in the White House lawn.  How could she do that?  Why didn’t she respect our history?  It was just wrong.

Self-inflicted wounds

If you were bent on weakening the United States, and you somehow managed to be elected President, what might your strategy be?

Create division among the people?  Engineer tax cuts for the rich while people on the bottom receive increases in medical costs and food prices?

Wreck international trade relations?  Impose tariffs on imports and harm trading partners?

Keep out foreign intellectuals?  Reduce the number of foreign students and alienate the world’s top intellectuals?

Weaken the military?  Order it to get involved in ordinary police work and order it to kill foreign nationals on boats on the high seas?  Appoint an alcoholic pundit to be Secretary of “War”?

Use the Department of Justice to harass personal enemies?

Denigrate beloved national institutions and symbols like national parks, the Medal of Freedom, even the White House?

Go after the press and call it the enemy of the people, then blur the line between truth and fiction?

Appoint idiots to positions of authority?

Alienate our closest allies and suck up to foreign enemies?

Undermine the rule of law?

Deny scientific evidence on global warming and undertake policies that will make it worse?

I sometimes think Trump must be a foreign agent.  His hatred of America has no bounds.  By the end of his term we will be weak, divided, and unable to deal with crises.  That may be true already.

The perfect metaphor

So Trump thinks he is trolling us by posting a computer-generated image of him flying over America and dumping shit on us.  It is the perfect description of what he is doing, and we aren’t even one-fourth of the way through his reign.  

Now he is destroying the American White House.  I’ve seen movies where terrorists try to destroy the White House but never before the President.  I try to imagine what my landlord would have said if I brought in an excavator and starting tearing down a wall of our house on 4th Street in San José.  

I am Trump’s landlord, and so are all the American people.  It is time to evict that tenant.  It’s not his house. 

Rallies, Parades, and Signs

Consider this.  2500 rallies on Saturday.  Rallies around the world.  No one shot.  No one beaten.  Lots of laughter and mockery though.

Today’s Halloween parade in Palmerton was witnessed by thousands of people.  Many clapped; some gave our Democratic entry a thumbs up or smiled and waved.  However one guy wouldn’t let his kids take “Democratic candy” and one guy was bellowing insults.  Guess of the thousands which two I remember.  

Finally, my friend Bill sent me a bunch of memes from Saturday.  They included:

a picture of a butterfly and below it:  “The only orange monarch we want”

“Our huddled masses will beat your fascist asses”

“Honk if you’re not in the Epstein files”

and that photo of Trump and Epstein together with the caption:  “Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

Our "No Kings" Rally in Lehighton

What a well-organized rally.  About eight people parked cars in a huge lot less than a block away from the rally site.  Extra signs were provided for people who didn’t bring one.  Over 300 people attended.  People came in costume.  I would say that the ratio of drivers who approved to drivers who gave us the finger or thumbs down was about 9 to 1.

My sign said “MAGA–Make Argentina Great Again.”  I only stood about half an hour before my back gave out.  Luckily there was a nearby bench just behind the line where three other elderly participants and I could sit.

At 4 p.m., after the rally, we had a Democratic Party presence in the Lehighton Halloween parade.  We had four women passing out candy, one woman passing out doggie treats, two guys in front carrying a banner that said Carbon County Democrats, and our driver in his 1929 Ford pickup truck.  I sat on the bed of the truck and filled the candy buckets as they were emptied.  My costume was a Dolly Parton wig.  (I got lots of compliments, and one old near-sighted guy tried to flirt with me.  At least I assume he was near-sighted.)

It was a good day.

Incidentally, our daughter said a woman in Chico may have had the best sign.  It simply said, “You suck at golf.”